For the second year in a row,
Panama came out on top of the rankings, with the highest score
overall.

"The Global Well-Being Index measures well-being across five
elements (purpose, social, financial, community and physical) and
individual responses are categorized as thriving, struggling or
suffering....," the report's authors wrote. "Our analysis ranks
countries based on the percentage of the population that is
thriving in three or more elements of well-being."

Panama "leads all other countries in well-being, with 53% of its
residents thriving in three or more elements," Gallup reported.
"Panama is also the highest country for purpose (60%) and
physical well-being (52%)."

But Panama's repeat isn't the whole story. In fact, seven of the
ten "highest well-being countries," as defined by Gallup, are in
Latin America.

For perspective, the US dropped to 23rd place in 2014, from 12th
in 2013. Afghanistan ranked last in the report, at 145.

Andy Kierz

We were curious about why Latin Americans fared so well in terms
of their well-being, so we checked in with Dan
Witters, Gallup-Healthways Research Director, to get
some insight.

He added: "There are some pretty poor countries there,
characterized by many decades of civil strife, human rights
abuses, and outright civil war — yet people maintain pretty
impressive levels of objective well-being. For those of us who spend all of time in
well-being measurement, it was no surprise to see Latin American
countries in there."

For all of 2014, Gallup's
researchers interviewed 146,000 adults in 145 countries to obtain
its data.

"Our research shows that people
with higher well-being have higher productivity, lower healthcare
costs, are more resilient in the face of challenges and are more
likely to contribute to the success of their organizations and
communities," the authors wrote.

Money is a factor in well-being, but as Witters noted, it's only
important up to a point. This is backed up by a significant
amount of research that has been conducted over the past fours
decades, under the rubric of "happiness economics," a field that
has gained increasing respect in the academic world after
being
pioneered in the 1970s by Richard Easterlin, who is now at
the University of Southern California.

In the US for example,
happiness peaks at about $75,000 in annual income and then
doesn't climb higher. And if you're already rich, you have to get
much, much richer to move up the happiness scale.

According to Witter, "negative
affect," or the tendency to view one's well-being as limited,
bottoms out at $75,000. And unfortunately, stress can start to
increase again if you move beyond that income
bracket.

In Panama, the ability to be
optimistic about finding employment also moves the needle of
well-being. Witter said that in the happiest country in the
happiest overall region, Latin America, people report that it's a
good time to find a job.